Quotes of the day 14th October 2017
"To avert a revolution, we need a small victorious war.”
(Vyacheslav von Plehve on Russia's position at the start of the 20th century. They ended up with the Russo-Japanese war which was neither small nor victorious and actually caused a revolt.)
"The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions."
(Robert Wilson Lynd)
"Nearly all the belligerents in 1914 believed they would be fighting a short war, until they found they weren’t."
(The Economist, review of Lawrence Freedman's book "The Future of War: A History" which explores how countries fallen for that dangerous, seductive and astonishingly enduring myth of thinking they can benefit from a "Short Victorious War.")
You can read the review here. It concludes as follows:
"The one thing that Sir Lawrence is sure of is that predictions of future war rarely get it right. His message to policymakers is to beware those who tout “the ease and speed with which victory can be achieved while underestimating the resourcefulness of adversaries”. Anybody who thinks otherwise should read this book."
(Vyacheslav von Plehve on Russia's position at the start of the 20th century. They ended up with the Russo-Japanese war which was neither small nor victorious and actually caused a revolt.)
"The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions."
(Robert Wilson Lynd)
"Nearly all the belligerents in 1914 believed they would be fighting a short war, until they found they weren’t."
(The Economist, review of Lawrence Freedman's book "The Future of War: A History" which explores how countries fallen for that dangerous, seductive and astonishingly enduring myth of thinking they can benefit from a "Short Victorious War.")
You can read the review here. It concludes as follows:
"The one thing that Sir Lawrence is sure of is that predictions of future war rarely get it right. His message to policymakers is to beware those who tout “the ease and speed with which victory can be achieved while underestimating the resourcefulness of adversaries”. Anybody who thinks otherwise should read this book."
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